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Paris (AFP) – A commercial success, but a health and ecological time bomb, the puff, a disposable electronic cigarette that targets young people, at the risk of making minors fall into nicotine addiction, will be at the heart of the annual congress of tobacconists during debates on Friday .
With its childish, sweet or fruity flavors -“marshmallow”, “ice candy”, “choco hazelnut”…- its brightly colored packaging reminiscent of sweets and its low price ranging from 8 to 12 euros for 500 puffs, the puff , which exists under twenty brands, worries because it targets teenagers, while the electronic cigarette is prohibited for minors.
“Increasingly popular on social networks, it has a rather positive and harmless image among young people”, while it can contain up to 20 mg / ml of nicotine, an addictive substance, and can thus “be a door of entry” to cigarettes for adolescents, warns the Alliance Against Tobacco.
Thus the firm EliquidAndCo which distributes the Vape Pen French Puff “blonde tobacco flavor”, does not hide from introducing young people to “the taste and the gesture of the cigarette” with the commercial argument: “You will really have the impression of smoke as with a tobacco cigarette”, underlined the association 60 million consumers.
Sales of puff – also marketed on the internet or in vapostores – already represent, for some tobacconists, half of the activity generated by the electronic cigarette: this brings them 140 million euros out of 3.6 billion in turnover. annual gross business.
The Confederation of tobacconists, which brings together its members for its annual congress Thursday and Friday in Paris, is delighted with the “dynamic sales of this new product”, its president Philippe Coy told AFP.
But she deplores “the marketing done around the puff, with a well-defined targeting on a young population”, he underlines. “This puts us in a very delicate situation: influencers have communicated on TikTok, this has created a demand that we must refuse, which is quite complicated for us on a daily basis”, he reports.
Trash on the beaches
In the spring, the Ministry of Health had sent a report to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, in view of the “strong promotion” of the puff on “social networks frequented mainly by young people”.
Respecting the ban on the sale to minors of the four products marketed by tobacconists, tobacco, electronic cigarettes, alcohol and gambling, is part of the “commitment” of a profession which might also be entrusted with “tomorrow, new ranges of so-called sensitive products,” said Mr. Coy.
The approximately 23,500 tobacconists in the territory are often pinned on the subject: at the end of 2021, the National Committee once morest Smoking (CNCT) affirmed, following a “mystery shoppers” survey with 17-year-old young people, that six out of ten violated the ban on sale of tobacco to minors.
The Confederation has “created an ethical group to restore order: it’s good that we are facing a difficulty, we are aware of it … it is not very popular (within the network, editor’s note) but today is the path we will take,” says Mr. Coy.
The puff also poses an environmental problem: this “disposable plastic product, with a” lithium battery, is “waste that we are starting to find on the beaches”, reports Diane Beaumenay-Joannet, project manager for plastic within of the NGO Surfrider.
“Because it’s disposable and cheaper than a pack of cigarettes, and because the target is young, we will find more and more of them in the environment,” she says, pointing to “the lack of communication on the fact that it must be returned to a suitable bin”.
Moving towards “more eco-designed and more sustainable products”, would require revising the European directive on single-use plastic products, which is “not on the agenda”, deplores Ms Beaumenay-Joannet, for who “the puff will have time to flood the market and produce a lot of new waste”.
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